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Industrial Worker

Industrial Worker - The Voice of the IWW

The Industrial Worker is the official (English language) newspaper of the Industrial Worker of the World. It is published ten times a year, and printed by union labor. Articles not so designated do not reflect the official position of the IWW. Our editor is elected by the membership via a rank and file vote for a two- year term of office.

Subscribe/donate to the Industrial Workerthrough store.iww.org. You can also email store [at]iww.org or mail a check or money order to Industrial Workers of the World, PO Box 180195, Chicago, IL 60618, USA.

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Submit Articles to the Industrial Worker

The Industrial Worker encourages submissions of articles about IWW organizing drives, direct action at the point of production, rank & file struggles within mainstream labor unions, workers issues, strikes, pickets, boycotts, labor news, labor history, and reviews of current and historical literature about the IWW, the labor movement, or labor history.

Before you write your article or simply repost an e-mail message, please download this PDF file explaining how to write effectively so your article will have a better chance of being published. Raw, unedited text is far less likely to be published.

Articles will be checked for accuracy and are subject to editing for length and clarity. Submissions will not be returned. You may send articles through the mail at the address listed above, or to this e-mail address:

iw [at] iww.org

Do not send e-mail not immediately relevent to the Industrial Worker (spam)

It can be used to raise funds for your local IWW branch or organizing committee.

How to place the Industrial Worker in local stores:

Many bookstores and newsstands will take newspapers on consignment. This is an arrangement where the store pays only for copies sold, returning the unsold copies and paying for each issue as the new issue is delivered. Although it is possible to mail copies directly from GHQ, for billing and collecting purposes it is usually better to send the papers to you.

Who will take the Industrial Worker on consignment?

If the store carries alternative or radical newspapers, they are probably getting at least some of them on consignment and will be glad to take 5 or 10 IWs. But even if they aren't, there's no reason not to ask - the worst they can do is say no. Sometimes a store will say they only deal with distributors, in which case you should ask for the name and contact information for the local distributor(s) they deal with so they can be approached.

Who do you approach?

Generally a manager or periodicals buyer is in charge of making decisions about what titles to carry. The easiest way is to ask a clerk who you would see about placing a newspaper on consignment.

What terms should you offer?

Most bookstores are accustomed to getting between 30 and 40 percent of the cover price on periodicals, so offering a 60/40 split (you get 60 cents for each copy sold, the store gets 40) will seem reasonable to them. (Since we make copies available to IWW branches and groups for 20 cents each, this leaves a margin for unsold copies and perhaps a little left over for local agitation.) Five copies is usually a good number to start, adjust the number up or down depending on how they're selling.

Regular maintenance is necessary

It's important to keep up with your consignment accounts. You need to get them new issues on time (don't let them sit around for a couple of weeks), to keep clear records of how many copies you dropped off and when (a spiral notebook with a page for each store can be useful), and when you were last paid (sometimes when you drop new papers off there will be a new clerk on duty and you'll need to collect the funds you're owed later, when someone who knows what to do is there). It's also a good idea to take a look at the news rack from time to time to make sure the papers are orderly, and in stock.

Download a PDF Version of these instructions. An Adobe Acrobat Reader plug-in is required; you may download by clicking on the button above and to the left.